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Human impact on vegetation at the Alpine tree-line ecotone during the last millennium: lessons from high temporal and palynological resolution

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Abstract

Three mires and a small lake in the Swiss and Austrian Alps were studied palynologically at high resolution, covering the last 1,000, 400, 50 and 1,200 years, respectively. Methodological lessons include: (1) Sub-decadal resolution in upper, little-decomposed peat layers reveals recurrent marked fluctuations in both percentages and influx of regional tree-pollen types, reflecting variations in pollen production rather than in plant-population sizes. (2) Intermittent, single-spectrum pollen maxima in samples of sub-decadal resolution indicate pollen transport in clumps. This type of pollen transport may remain unrecognized in sections with lower sampling resolution, which may then lead to inappropriate interpretation in terms of plant-population sizes. (3) The detection of short-lived phases of human impact in decomposed peat requires sampling intervals as close as 0.2 cm. (4) PAR (pollen influx) may reflect vegetation dynamics more faithfully than percentages. Reliable PAR, however, is difficult to achieve in Alpine mires due to past human impact on peat growth, even when complex depth–age modelling techniques are used. Critical comparison of PAR with percentages is therefore essential. (5) Careful consideration of spatial scales in pollen signals (local–regional and subdivisions) is essential for a realistic palaeo-ecological interpretation. Results in terms of past human impact on vegetation are summarized as follows: (1) Trends in pollen types reflecting regional human action are in general agreement with earlier findings for the western Swiss Alps, allowing for regional differences. (2) All mires in the Alps investigated here and in an earlier study experienced human impact during the last millennium. The studied small lake, lying in sub-alpine pasture, records forest dynamics at a lower elevation since a.d. 800.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Brigitta Ammann for funding the Gouillé Rion analysis, Peter Lintschinger for help with access to the mires in Lungau, Per Sjögren for help with fieldwork in 2003 (Lungau), Urs Krähenbühl and Regina Schreier for help in coring Mauntschas, and Hans Joosten and Mariusz Lamentowicz for help with sub-sampling Mauntschas in Greifswald using the DAMOCLES device. We thank Simon Connor for comments on the manuscript. This study is an outcome of European Union project PINE (Predicting Impacts on Natural Ecotones, project No. EVK2-CT-2002-00136), and is part of EU FP6 project No. 017008 Millennium (European climate of the last millennium).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland

    W. O. van der Knaap, Jacqueline F. N. van Leeuwen & Willy Tinner

  2. Faculty of Physics, A. Mickiewicz University, Umultowska 85, 61-614, Poznan, Poland

    Tomasz Goslar

  3. Poznań Radiocarbon Laboratory, Rubież 46, 61-612, Poznan, Poland

    Tomasz Goslar

  4. Department of Organismic Biology, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Robert Krisai

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  1. W. O. van der Knaap
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  2. Jacqueline F. N. van Leeuwen
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  3. Tomasz Goslar
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  4. Robert Krisai
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  5. Willy Tinner
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Correspondence to W. O. van der Knaap.

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Communicated by A. Lotter.

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van der Knaap, W.O., van Leeuwen, J.F.N., Goslar, T. et al. Human impact on vegetation at the Alpine tree-line ecotone during the last millennium: lessons from high temporal and palynological resolution. Veget Hist Archaeobot 21, 37–60 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-011-0315-1

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